Second-half run helps give Bishop Guertin girls lacrosse win over Bedford (video)

NASHUA - The biggest games can often times hinge on just one moment.

In Thursday night's game at Stellos Stadium, it came on a yellow card.

The Bishop Guertin High School girls lacrosse team took full advantage of a two-minute penalty on Bedford, scoring four goals and creating separation to survive a late run by the Bulldogs, as the Cardinals held on for a 12-7 win in a battle between the last two undefeated teams in Division I.

That run came after Bishop Guertin struggled in the first half on the draw and with turnovers, but were able to take a two-goal lead into halftime thanks to goalie Makenna Reekie. The senior had six of her 11 saves in the first half, including two on Bedford's first possession.

"She was insane," Bishop Guertin coach Leslie Why said of Reekie. "When they come in and they’re dodging in, and they’ve got one or two of our players on them, she can track it well and she steps to it. She doesn’t stand and wait."

Nat Coutu led the offense with three goals and three assists, while Lauren Redfern had three goals and an assist and Rylee Bouvier also scored three goals for the Cardinals (11-0-1, No. 1 in the NHHSSports Coaches Poll). Tess Prunier had two goals and two assists and Katie Campel had a goal and an assist.

Bedford (11-1, No. 2) got three goals from Sydney Grogan while Julian Bell had two goals and an assist and Reagan O'Brien had a goal and an assist. Eliana Enners also scored and Abby Weidner finished with three saves.

"We definitely were struggling to get some flow with our offense," Bedford coach Christine Hodgdon said. "We were getting some good looks. Our shot selection wasn’t great, the goalie was tracking our ball really well. It didn’t matter what offense we tried, we were just having trouble. Our feeds were a little off, our drives were a little off.

"Our defense played great. We were prepared for all facets of the game. We just didn’t execute well."

Through one half, Bedford had the edge on shots and turnovers and had won 6 of 9 draws, but trailed 4-1 after a great defensive play and breakout by the Cardinals.

Bouvier caused a turnover, got open to take a pass from Campel, and ran the ball to midfield. From there, she hit Prunier with a long pass, who then found Coutu cutting to the net for a goal, forcing Bedford to use a timeout with 11:22 left until halftime.

The Bulldogs were able to close the gap to 5-3 before halftime and it was a 6-4 Cardinals lead after the teams traded goals to open the second half. Redfern scored with 20:13 left in the game to make it 7-4 and Bedford looked like it might answer again.

Instead, Bouvier forced another turnover and got the groundball herself. As she raced down the field, Bell tried to knock the ball away but drew a yellow card with 18:06 remaining.

Moments later, Coutu found Bouvier cutting for a goal, and 19 seconds later, Coutu added a goal of her own to make it 9-4. After the Cardinals won the draw, Redfern scored on a free position, and then Campel got the ensuing draw and raced down field for another goal just 10 seconds later.

In all, Bishop Guertin scored four goals in 1:10 to take an 11-4 lead with 16:30 remaining.

"It’s relief when you’re super close and then you have a bit of a lead," Reekie said. "We’ve still got to keep going because we just did that in that amount of time, they could do that, if not more. They’re just as fired up as us. It feels good, but it’s also stressful."

Both teams picked up two yellow cards the rest of the way, but the score stayed the same until late. Grogan broke a scoring drought of almost 20 minutes for Bedford, making it 11-5 with 3:20 left.

The Bulldogs won the draw and got a free position and Reekie made a save, but O'Brien was able to get the groundball and scored to make it a five-goal game with 2:28 remaining. Another draw control led to a free-position goal by Grogan just 30 seconds later to make it 11-7.

Bedford got the draw again, but this time, Reekie made a save on a free position and held on to run off most of the time remaining.

"It’s still really stressful, even when I made that last save," she said. "I know they are a hard-working team. We were both coming into it really fired up. We were all really excited for this game."